UNDER THE JUNIPER TREE!

Psa 4:1 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. KJV

Psa 4:1 For the choir director: A psalm of David, to be accompanied by stringed instruments. Answer me when I call to You, O God who declares me innocent. Free me from my troubles. Have mercy on me and hear my prayer. NLT

INTRODUCTION

Good morning Southpointe!

This morning I want to discuss with you about a subject that has and will continue to come against God’s people but really just people period.

We are never immune for the possibility of discouragement. But it is in the midst of discouragement that God has builds the strongest servants.

Many of the psalms are written form a distressed heart. In our text this morning, the psalmist said, You have enlarged me when I was in distress.

There a story that has been told over and over again, many of you may have heard it, but it is worth telling again.

There was a meeting of all the devils of hell. It was a strategy session and the issue was how to defeat Christians in their daily living.

One of them said, let’s made suggestions, casting suspicion on the Bible, the character of Christ, and the nature of God.

Another one said, let’s just take outright persecution on them.

But the last one said, let’s just slowly plant bits of bad news her and there until discouragement take over.

That was it!! The devils would be trained in inducing discouragement.

The word discouragement originate from the french people and it means courage that been taken away.

There are times when I become very discouraged and wonder, “What’s going on? I don’t understand, God!”

Can you relate to my discouragement? Maybe yours is the result of something very painful: No job, single and wonder will I ever find someone, a prolonged illness, financial difficulties.

And Maybe you too wonder:  

First of all, I want you to know that you are not alone in feeling this way. Discouragement is a natural part of being human. We can see moments of discouragement all throughout the Bible:

Rachel: Jacob’s beloved wife could not conceive a child, which in ancient times was as good as a death sentence for a woman. Rachel’s discouragement at being barren led her to bitterly cry out to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”  

King David: At one point, David’s men were so angry that their wives and children had been taken captive that they wanted to stone David. As a result, David became “greatly distressed”

Job: No man ever experienced such loss as Job. In one days’ time, he lost all ten of his children, 11,000 animals,  “a large number of servants,” and later his own health. 

One of Job’s friend hit the nail on the head when he said to Job, “Trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed”

Discouragement comes in various forms—in response to something we hoped for, in response to our own or someone else’s failure, in response to life’s trials. 

While discouragement is not necessarily a sin, it can tempt us to blame God or distance ourselves from Him.

There are three things you might be tempted to do when you feel discouraged:  

1. You might be tempted to think fulfilment of your desire will be enough. 

Our hearts are hole-y. And these holes we are prone to try and fill with things or people we think will satisfy us. You know, because sometimes You have caught yourself thinking: If I could just get more of what ever, I’d be happy. I’d be satisfied. It would be enough. 

And, yet, when (and if) that longing is ever satisfied, we find, sadly, that another “hole” appears—another longing fills it quickly—and dissatisfaction (and discouragement) consume us once again.

2. You might be tempted to doubt God’s promises.

We are short-sighted people, we are always focusing on what is happening currently in our lives or what is not happening, However case may be.

When we don’t see our longings or desires (or even our prayers) being fulfilled immediately, we tend to doubt God and the promises He gives us in the Bible. We doubt His goodness toward us, His love for us.  

You may be tempted to think that God’s promises are empty promises, at least when it comes to your particular situation. 

3. You might be tempted to Doubt God’s Plan. 

Sometimes it’s easier to see God’s plan for other people. At least it is for me. When it comes to my own life, I’m sometimes tempted to think that God has forgotten about me and that other peoples’ lives are more important than mine. 

When we get feeling discouraged, the best thing you can do is to seek God, who is the “God of all comfort”

There a man in the Word of God that was one of God’s mightiest men. He stood up and out in the Old Testament like a wall for God.

In obedience to God Elijah walked into the palace one day announced to King Ahab that there would be no dew nor rain for years until he gave the word.

He left and didn’t show himself and later on and God commanded Elijah to show himself. So Elijah went to King Ahab who was out searching for a puddle of water for his livestock.

King Ahab exploded when he saw him.

1 Kings 18:17 When Ahab saw him, he exclaimed, "So, is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel?"

1 Kings 18:18 "I have made no trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of the LORD and have worshiped the images of Baal instead.

And then Elijah challenges King Ahab and all of the Baal’s prophets to show down on Mount Carmel.

And God gives him wisdom, courage and strength to win against them. The fire fall on the altar.

The people are shouting the Lord, He is the God. The Lord, He is the God.

All the prophets of Baal were killed.The victory was complete.

What a day for the Lord God of Israel and God’s prophet Elijah.

But it didn’t stop there. Elijah announced that there would be rain and there was a great rain.

The Hand of the Lord was upon him.

But then’s show up:

We need to be ready for those “But then” in our lives.

Ahab went home and he had to tell his wife Jezebel what had taken place that day.

She was so upset that she send a message to Elijah.

1 Kings 19:2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: "May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them."

24 hours and you will be dead!

Here it is the Juniper Tree syndrome or the Post-Carmel letdown.

It has or will happen to us all. We can and must be ready for it.

Here is Elijah the giant of Mount Carmel in a matter of a few days is reduced to a cowering crawling, and pleading for a merciful death.

And He get under the Juniper Tree.

Here our hero, under the Juniper Tree, you kinda want to say, What’s a Spiritual preacher like you doing in a place like this?

There are some basic dangers that occur in times of blessings.

a. Preoccupation

In times of spiritual blessings, if we become careless our disciplines are shaken and are apt to be left in the excitement of a a new set of demands.

When you look at 1 Kings 19, Elijah in his preoccupation forgot some things. When he got that letter for old Jezebel. He forgotten the provision and protection of God in the past.

Was not the rain withheld at His Word? Had not God commandeered the ravens to bring his daily meals.

Did not God provide for him the widow? Did not God raise the widow’s son from the dead?

You would think that with the kind of backdrop that he would need not to be afraid of a wicked woman!

You see, preoccupation will create forgetfulness. Forgetfulness about what God has done and instead we staring at the situation.

b. Inconsistencies

Discouragement is never feasible. It is always based on false information or true information with sever leanings.

It helps to face the emptiness of our discouragement.

Martin Luther’s wife on one occasion said to him, “Martin,I am sorry that your God is dead!” He quickly responded, “Why, God is not dead!”

She said, “You seem to be acting as discouraged as if He was!.

Have we forgotten the God is alive!!

And that He lives in us!

Rom 8:11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

This is the inconsistencies, That we thought that we were the one making the blessings come into our lives.

And then there are times when it does not work out the way we think it should be then God quit being God to us.

Our inconsistencies start because we are standing confident in God and we know that He lives in us and that He guides, He strength us, and He gives us wisdom and all we need and that He will take care of us and then it doesn’t go way we think is right. That the “But then”

1 Kings 19:3 And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

Look at this: When he saw that, he went for his life. What was “that” which caused him to panic?

Well, he saw the threat of Jezebel, and immediately his thoughts went haywire.

How crazy our imaginations become when for one moment we look to “that” instead of God.

Elijah saw “that” when he should have focus his vision upon the stedfast purpose and unchanging character of God.

We should never establish our direction on the basis of what others may present as a problem, Those “that” in our lives.

We are not to base our goings or our stoppings on “that” whatever it may be.

If we try to guard yourself, we remove yourself from God’s deliverance.

Do you see the inconsistency of it all?

He takes the wrong things into account, he moves from asking God to protect his life to praying that God would take it.

Think about this: had he really wanted to die, he could have waited a few hours on Jezebel and she would have gladly accommodated him.

And, by the way, he ran almost one hundred miles in the wrong direction.

Because that want discouraged people do. They run the wrong way.

Finally:

Our disappointment may be His appointment!

We are not disqualified by discouragement. God has unfulfilled plans and He has counted us in on them.

We may have hit bottom but He is not through!

We may not understand the proceedings but then we are not called to understand only obey.

1 Kings 19:9 There he came to a cave, where he spent the night. But the LORD said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Look what God said to Elijah, What are you doing here?

Now, that is always a good question. It calls for a present and sometime a painful evaluation.

What are you doing here?

This is a very simple question, it cuts through complication and gets to the heart of the matter.

So today, God might be asking you what are you doing in that mess?

Elijah’s answer show that he was still having trouble:

1 Kings 19:10 Elijah replied, "I have zealously served the LORD God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with You, torn down Your altars, and killed every one of Your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too."

Look what God did:

1 Kings 19:11 "Go out and stand before Me on the mountain," the LORD told him. And as Elijah stood there, the LORD passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

1 Kings 19:12 And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.

God showed Elijah a clear demonstration of His power and might.

God was telling Elijah I am not in all the things that people think I should be in but if you will listen to that still small voice then I will direct you and you will experience my power.

God was telling Elijah there’s no power shortage with me.

But look what God told Elijah to do:

Elijah was still discouraged:

1 Kings 19:13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And a voice said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

1 Kings 19:14 He replied again, "I have zealously served the LORD God Almighty. But the people of Israel have broken their covenant with You, torn down Your altars, and killed every one of Your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too."

Elijah hanging in there, Discouragement— remember it is were courage has been taken away.

Look what God told him to do:

1 Kings 19:15 Then the LORD told him, "Go back the same way you came,

Elijah had travel over hundred miles in the wrong direction.

Many people get discourage and they will run away from the problem, run away from God. Wrong way!!!

Run to God, and He will take you through the situation.

And God will show you that your discouragement was un-called for:

1 Kings 19:18 Yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him!"

Go back to God and trust Him

Psa 37:3 Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

Psa 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart's desires.

Psa 37:5 Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust Him, and He will help you.